Balancing profitability and growth, despite tough external conditions, SBI Life Insurance has posted a record profit of Rs.366 crores, increasing by 33% and collected total premium of Rs.12,912 crores, growing by 28% over the last financial year 2009-10.
The new business premium collection stood at Rs.7,572 crores, an increase of 7% over last financial year 2009-10. This has been supplemented with a whopping growth in renewal premium collection of 74%, to Rs. 5,340 crores in FY 2010-11 from Rs. 3,063 crores in FY 2009-10.
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The persistency level, as per the standard 13-month industry measure, has increased by 11 % points to 69 %, in FY 2010 – 11, from 58%, in FY 2009-10. The Asset Under Management jumped by 40 % to Rs 40,163 crores from Rs. 28,703 crores as on 31st March, 2010.
Reflecting superior efficiency in business operations, the company maintains the lowest “expense to GWP (Gross Written Premium)” ratio in industry of 5.8%. During the financial year 2010-11, the company uniquely expanded by adding 135 new branches and increasing number of employees by 1313.
Highlights of FY 10 11
Gross Written Premium : Rs 12,912 Cr (28 %)
New Business : Rs 7,572 Cr (7 %)
Premium
Asset Under : Rs 40,163 Cr (40%)
Management ( Y-o-Y)
Commenting on the performance, Mr. M N Rao, MD & CEO, SBI Life Insurance said “Our rapid adaptation to the new external environment while maintaining emphasis on customer centricity and operational excellence, has resulted in profitable growth. We remain committed to catering to the life insurance needs of Indian population encompassing all socio-economic and geographical segments.”
23% of total lives covered by SBI Life are from rural segment which testifies the company’s approach towards life insurance inclusion. Additionally, 70,000 lives covered by the company are from the underprivileged social sector. Consequently, the company has exceeded the minimum social and rural regulatory norms.
All key distribution channels namely, Bancassurance, Agency and Corporate Solutions have demonstrated profitable business growth during the period. The Agency Channel provided a significant thrust to the overall business by contributing 42% of total premium as a result of superior productivity levels of Insurance Advisors. Bancassurance witnessed a remarkable growth of 44% and contributed to over 37% cent of the total premium and Group Corporate contributed to 18% of total premium.
During the second half of the financial year, the company introduced a series of “Simple and Smart” products including new IRDA guidelines compliant ULIPs, Pure Protection and Traditional products. The rapidly launched eight new ULIPs cater to the insurance and long-term investment needs of the varied customer segments. These include HNI-targeted Smart Elite, NAV-Guaranteed Smart Performer, No Medicals ULIP – Saral Maha Anand, Flexible ULIP – Unit Plus Super, Child Plan – Smart Scholar, pre-determined NAV ULIP – Wealth Assure, Pension ULIP – Smart Pension and ULIP with Automatic Asset Allocation – Smart Horizon. Innovatively-featured, non-ULIPs rolled out during the financial year were No-Medicals, pure protection plan – Saral Shield, HNI targeted, pure protection plan – Smart Shield and No Medicals, traditional savings plan – Saral Life.
During FY 2010-11, one of the highlights towards achieving customer service excellence has been the national launch of customer care initiative ‘SMS SOLVE”. A first-of-its kind in the life insurance industry, the service allows customers to have their grievances resolved in a simpler, paperless and faster manner. An innovative SMS-based service, SMS SOLVE provides customers the ease of accessing SBI Life 24 X 7. Customers are able to register their grievances about SBI Life’s service by merely sending SMS ‘SOLVE’ to 56161.
Continuing with its winning streak of bagging numerous recognitions and awards, the company was declared “Life Insurer of the year” by Bloomberg UTV Financial Awards, 2011. Being adjudged the best, SBI Life’s annual report has won Gold Shield from Institute of Charted Accountants of India (ICAI) for excellence in Financial Reporting. Also, International Certification Services (ICS) has awarded SBI Life “ICS Quality Champion Award – 2010” for continual improvement in the Quality Process. NDTV Profit Business Leadership award and Best Life Insurer 2010, Runner Up, award by Outlook Money are the other key media recognitions that have been conferred to SBI Life. Retaining the ISO 9001:2000 Certification for superior claim process, globally topping the prestigious international MDRT Table and reaffirmation of CRISIL “AAA/Stable” rating are other key distinctions achieved by the company during FY 2010-11.
As per the latest IRDA report, as of March 2011, the company has market share of 19.22% among private life insurers and a total market share of 6.02%
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